Re: decision theory papers

From: Wei Dai <weidai.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 13:50:16 -0700

On Thu, Apr 18, 2002 at 01:39:59PM -0700, Brent Meeker wrote:
> Exactly. So what does the assumption about the complete mathematical
> description add?

It's so that your preferences are well defined.

> > As a positive theory, decision theory is going to be wrong sometimes (e.g.
> > not predict what people actually do), but it may be able to make up for
> > that with conceptual elegance and simplicity.
>
> Hmm. Maybe I misunderstood your objective. I thought it was to decide
> what action to take - not to predict what some person will do.

Did you not understand the distinction between "positive" and "normative"?
A positive theory explains and predicts, a normative theory tells you what
you should do. I'm interested in both.
Received on Thu Apr 18 2002 - 13:52:40 PDT